A Handmaid's Tale
by taramidala
Summary: Sabé's life, in meta!fic form. Whether it is canon-compliant, slightly divergent, or completely AU is up to you, dear reader.
1. Chapter 1: On a Handmaid

**Title** : A Handmaid's Tale

 **Time Frame:** TPM to post-ROTJ

 **Disclaimer:** All belongs to Lucasfilm Ltd. and the Disney Corporation except for many details of Sabé's history, which are my creation.

 **Notes:** This is my own set of ideas about Sabé's background and her life. Most of it is my own creation, though some of it it is inspired by her "Legends" information on the Wook. Depending on your own point of view it can be considered canon compliant, slightly AU, or dramatically AU. I had no beta on this one, so any mistakes are mine.

 **Chapter 1: On a Handmaid's Origins**

She's born Sabéa, to Kohlen and Taryah Veyana, and joins her sister Rioona in their modest home in the lush farmlands of Naboo's southern hemisphere. Her mother, the village elder. Her father, the village teacher.

When she's identified as a candidate for a newly-formed elite Theed security force at 16, she changes her name to fit in with the capital and becomes Sabé Veyanarrie. It's not long after that when she's chosen as the leader of the squad, and Princess Amidala's personal security detail. She's the best, and while the other girls have their strengths, she is the one to whom Amidala – Padmé – and her security chief Panaka, give their utmost trust.

That honor has its benefits, not just for Sabé herself, but sister, too. Rioona, now Roo'na Vey, joins her in Theed and will become a renowned educator like their father.

She bonds with Padawan Kenobi on those long troublesome days (and nights) on Tatooine, over headstrong superiors with impulsivity complexes and misguided senses of righteousness. Once their mutual annoyance with each other fades (somewhat, not completely; she still has a role to play after all), they stay up all night waiting for word. From Naboo, from Master Jinn. Sometimes they play sabacc. Sometimes they exchange childhood stories. From the Temple on Coruscant, from the green fields of her parents' farm.

Before their ordeal is over, she nearly confesses everything. That she is _not_ Amidala but _Sabéa_ , not a girl of 14 but a woman of 18.

When he smiles at her during the victory parade, she sees, through his sadness, that he's known all along.


	2. Chapter 2: After the Throne

**Chapter 2: After the Throne**

When Padmé moves on to the Senate, Sabé moves on as well. The pilot program that flourished during Amidala's reign will continue, with Sabé at the head. Calls go out planetwide for girls with the same strength and cunning that Sabé and her compatriots once possessed. She mourns the departure of each one whether to service (Dormé, Moteé, Ellé) or to death (Cordé, Versé). With no aspirations for a child of her own, she cherishes each girl who walks through her door.

Her bond with Padmé never wavers. On the (rare) occasions the Senator comes home, they hole up in her room in Roo'na's flat for hours. And when she brings a new batch of staff to Coruscant, Padmé's lavish apartment is her own.

It's through these visits and this connection that she first meets Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, and from that meeting comes an independent contract to train security staff for Queen Breha. With his new role in the Senate, he cannot oversee her safety as much as he'd like, and their planet's political positions put her at risk.

As for the Jedi, she crosses paths with _Master_ Kenobi only once. She's called to give Senator Organa an update to find the Master Jedi arriving for tea. He's polite as ever, and though there's little time for deep conversation, he asks after her family. She teases him about his exploits and they make tentative arrangements for a tea of their own the next time she's on planet, pending his assignments.

She ignores the smirk in Padmé's voice the next time they speak. The Senator's a right hypocrite to be teasing her about romantic entanglements when she herself has none.

She and Kenobi never do have that tea, however. Not on Coruscant anyway.


	3. Chapter 3: During the War

**Chapter 3: During the War**

Padmé's breathless announcement of marriage ("You can tell no one!") is more surprising than hearing she'd been chosen to serve, all those years ago. While her true reaction is somewhere between "Are you crazy?" and "Let's step back and reconsider, Milady," she puts on her best smile and asks Padmé to tell her everything.

Of Padmé's new husband, the boy turned man, Anakin, Sabé simply observes. Intense and dark, looking at his wife with possession, so contrary to the boy she met once and to the man she knows as his master.

Their happiness is short-lived, as they're off to war, while Sabé stays behind, but with a new mission. Queen Neeyutnee asks her to oversee matters concerning Senate intelligence. Saying goodbye to dearest Roo'na, Sabé packs off for Coruscant, to a newly apportioned apartment adjacent to Senator Amidala's penthouse.

In between meetings and introductions, by the grace of Padmé and Senator Organa, among other new acquaintances, she manages to carve out a life for herself. The ballet and the symphony are beautiful comforts (and the Senator's private box affords a measure of privacy when collecting information for Her Royal Highness), and the public gardens near the Senate bring color and beauty to her days in a city of metal and gray.

She still never manages to meet Master Kenobi for tea, but her heart stills at the mention of his name. She prays for his, and Skywalker's, safety every day.

She prays even harder the day that Padmé tells her, tearfully, that she carries Skywalker's child.


	4. Chapter 4: Into the Dark Times

**Chapter 4: Into the Dark Times**

She sees him. In the shadows of the crowd at Padmé's funeral. Older now, wiser and battered, but still the same sturdy presence she remembered. As she passes him in the funeral cortège she fixes him with a gaze. Brief, only a moment, but she silently shouts at him _**Get me out of here**_.

He catches her, after, in a dark alley on the way to her sister's home. She knows too much. Whatever got Padmé killed will surely come for her, too. She needs to disappear, but where? She cannot tell anyone - no one will understand. Kenobi came with Organa, but how? Can they take her with them?

Not right now, he tells her. Play the game. Be mournful and grief-stricken as a Naboo would. Tell no lies, but give no answers to any inquiries. Settle affairs as quickly and quietly as possible. Someone will come for her. Soon. One standard month, maybe less.

She deals with Panaka delicately, playing up the grief and hysteria for the Emperor's man. For Apailana, there's some measure of truth: that her connection to Amidala now endangers her, and she does not wish any additional undue attention. All her security and personal data, any trace of her, must disappear. Status unknown. For Roo'na's protection, and for her village's. The Queen insists on a single copy, Sabé's personal copy, for preservation, for posterity, for the future.

That she becomes Senator Binks' chief aide is a lie, but a well-crafted ruse that Ellé will play flawlessly, as she's always been one of the more shrewd political minds to come out of the training program. The Queen and Typho will help her settle in.

And Roo'na. Dearest Rioona cuts her hair, packs her bag, and weeps when Sabé insists for the fiftieth time that she can't know anything, that it's for the best. The night of her rendezvous, Sabé doesn't look back when Roo'na whispers "Is'braylem tué, jirféa*. Sabéa," into the dark.

It's not until she's safely in hyperspace, on the way to Force-knows-where with Master Kenobi, that she begins to weep. She is 31 years old, has a heart full of ashes, and wonders what's left to live for.

* * *

 _* "Is'braylem tué, jirféa" is butchered Gaelic for "Is breá liom tú, deirfiúr" which, translated, means "I love you, sister."_


	5. Chapter 5: Of Duty and Rebellion

**Chapter 5: Of Duty and Rebellion**

Tea with Master Kenobi - Ben - is a daily occurrence in the short time they share hiding space on Tatooine. When she settles in on Alderaan, tea becomes an indulgence she allows herself twice per week in honor of their friendship.

Senator Organa and Her Royal Highness Queen Breha could not be kinder. Not only do they offer her accommodation, but it is a suite in their own palace. It…takes adjustment, after so many years out of a royal household.

Through the years her role in the household shifts as the Princess grows. Governess, tutor, guardian. Teacher of etiquette, protocol, weaponry, subterfuge. History, religion, art. Politics. The girl is a natural, in nearly every way. Much like her mother. ( _And her father._ )

But she finds herself in another role, far greater in scale than the raising of a princess. At the Senator and Queen's request, she begins to travel. Working in the dark, whispered seditious conversations sow the seeds of rebellion. She's not alone. There are others ( _Fulcrum, The Ghost_ ) whom she never sees, but who are working in similar fashions. Together, with any luck ( _and the gods, and maybe the Force_ ) they will be ready in time.

She never tells the Princess anything of her past, even when asked, and as the girl becomes more like Padmé it breaks her heart afresh. ( _"We had an agreement," the Senator says. / "No, we didn't. You and your Jedi dictated it to me. I had nothing to do with it," she seethes._ ) Her increased travels make it easier to avoid the dissonance in her soul.

She vows that, one day, when Leia knows the truth, she will tell the girl everything.


	6. Chapter 6: Of Divergent Paths, and Truth

**Chapter 6: Of Divergent Paths, and Truth**

At Leia's election to the Senate, Sabé's path goes one of two ways. One path leads to her death, with the rest of her adopted world; this path means she never sees Roo'na or Naboo again, and Padmé Amidala's secrets go with her to her fiery grave. 

* * *

The other path, the more hopeful path, puts her offworld when the Emperor's war machine comes to call. Her reunion with her young ward is painful, and in the Princess' tears she sees her own from decades ago when she, too, had lost everything.

In the eyes of the boy she finally understands Obi-Wan's, and Organa's, secrecy. He radiates light, so much that she can feel it. But with no Jedi Master to speak of, the young man struggles to make his way on his own. It pains her to be so powerless, but Ahsoka has been out of touch for years and cannot be found.

She keeps herself distant, honoring the long-ago directive. Somewhere along the way those insistent seeds took root, and she decided to honor the requests of two men she came to love. Between missions she bears witness to their twin triumphs and their failures, their joy and their despair. She watches as they fall in love and fall apart. Yet she stays quiet. It is not yet time.

After Endor, it _is_ time. In between skirmishes that take them away from _Home One_ , she extends a simple request to Leia: that she and Luke, at their convenience, find the time to meet with her in her stateroom.

They're quite a pair, hand-in-hand in front of her. It reminds her suddenly that they're still such children.

She begins slowly, in nothing above a whisper, but over the course of an evening she reveals all she ever knew. There are tears, and laughter, and tears again, but when they leave she is assured that they will be _okay_ and her soul finally feels cleansed.

She tenders her resignation shortly thereafter. The fight will go on but, with those who she feared the most now dead, she has only one desire: to go home.

When her ship docks, and the ramp lowers, and she sees Roo'na standing in wait to embrace her, Sabé knows her sacrifice was worthy.


End file.
